If you need to install or upgrade to Windows 10, Microsoft has released a very simple tool named Media Creation Tool to allow you to download Windows 10 to upgrade the current PC to Windows 10, or to download the Windows 10 ISO images, or to create Windows 10 DVD dic or Windows 10 USB flash media for clean installation or installing the new version of Windows on a different PC.

Note
  1. No product key is required to download the Windows 10 ISO images, or to create DVD or USB media trough the Media Creation Tool.
  2. No product key is required when upgrading Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 that is genuine and activated to Windows 10.
  3. No product key is required (by skipping the product key entering) when clean install Windows 10 from scratch on a device which has previously upgraded to Windows 10 and gets activated in the past (hence the HWID, the hardware ID, is recorded on Microsoft activation server). The free Windows 10 license with permanent activation also applies to computers upgraded to Windows 10 final RTM Build 10240 from Windows Insider Preview Builds and pirated copies of Windows managed to trick Microsoft into believing it’s genuine.
  4. A valid Windows product key is required when directly installing Windows 10 for the first time on a device.

To use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool, follow these steps (this tutorial focuses on downloading ISO and creating DVD or USB media for Windows 10):

  1. Download Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from microsoft.com, or via the following download links:

    Media Creation Tool (Build 16299.15): MediaCreationTool.exe

    Older version of Media Creation Tool

    Media Creation Tool (Build 14393): MediaCreationTool.exe
    Media Creation Tool (Build 10586): MediaCreationToolRetail.exe
    32-bit Media Creation Tool (Build 10240): MediaCreationTool.exe
    64-bit Media Creation Tool (Build 10240): MediaCreationToolx64.exe

    Note
    All Media Creation Tools always download the latest RTM build of Windows 10 available, regardless of version.
  2. Run the Media Creation Tool.
  3. In the “Windows 10 Setup” window, choose Upgrade this PC now if you want to upgrade Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 for free, and hit Next.

    To get Windows 10 ISO images, or to create a Windows 10 DVD disc or USB flash drive, choose Create installation media for another PC, and hit Next.

    Windows 10 Media Creation Tool

  4. Choose the Language, Edition and Architecture of Windows 10 that you want to download. Refer to the table below to identify the appropriate Windows 10 edition that you should download, as part of Windows 10 upgrade path or to ensure selected if the one which corresponding to the license or product key you purchased. Click or tap on Next when selection is done.

    Select Windows 10 Edition and Language to Download

    Host operating system editionWindows 10 edition
    Windows 7 Starter
    Windows 7 Home Basic
    Windows 7 Home Premium
    Windows 8/8.1
    Windows 8.1 with Bing
    Windows 10 Home    		Windows 10 Home
    Windows 7 Professional
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Windows 8 Pro
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Windows 8/8.1 Professional with Media Center
    Windows 10 Pro    		Windows 10 Pro
    Windows 8/8.1 Single Language
    Windows 8 Single Language with Bing    		Windows 10 Home Single Language
    Windows 8/8.1 Chinese Language Edition
    Windows 8 Chinese Language Edition with Bing    		Windows 10 Home China
  5. Select either to create a USB flash drive or ISO file as the media for Windows 10 OS downloaded. If you want to burn a DVD disc, choose ISO file. Hit Next when done.
  6. If you selected USB flash drive, choose the USB flash removable drive to be used as Windows 10 media. If the tool can’t find a USB flash drive, plug in a USB flash drive to computer, and click or tap on Refresh drive list.
    Windows 10 Media Creation Tool will format and write to USB flash drive without warning, so make sure you don’t have important files on the USB flash drive.

    Select a USB Removable Drive to Create USB Windows 10 Media

    If you selected ISO file, choose a folder location to store the Windows 10 ISO image.

    Windows 10 ISO Saving Location

  7. Media Creation Tool starts to download and verify Windows 10 files with a progress status.
  8. After the download is complete, the ISO or USB flash drive media is created automatically. Select Finish to exit.

    Windows 10 ISO Image

    In Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, you can directly burn the ISO to DVD disc with Windows built-in DVD burner called Windows Disc Image Burner.

You can now locate the Windows 10 ISO or media at the location you specified in the wizard, and use it to install or upgrade any PC, such as using Windows 10 ISO to upgrade Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, by simply running the setup.exe. Do remember to check on Windows 10 system requirements to ensure that current system can run Windows 10 properly.

Microsoft Tech Bench Upgrade Program provides direct download links to Windows 7 (RTM & SP1), Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 ISO files, which hosted at one of the following URLs:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10iso
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench

Download 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 10 ISO

The ISO images that are downloaded directly from Microsoft’s servers is completely the same and has identical file hashes with ISO images posted on MSDN and the leaked Windows 10 OEM ISO.

Note that the file hashes (CRC32, SHA1, MDA and etc.) for Windows 10 ISO images created by Media Creation Tool are unique as time stamps and other factors are different for each computers. However, all Windows 10 ISO downloaded is identical, all of which the final gold master RTM release with build version number of 10.0.10240.16384. Microsoft first released the Windows 10 RTM Build 10240 to Windows Insiders, properly to test the upgrade process.

Update 2: Download Windows 10 v.1607 Anniversary Update (Build 14393) ISO Images

Update 1: Download Windows 10 v.1511 November Update (Build 10586) ISO Images

Windows 10 - Important Information

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